I have a 1 yr. old GSD. He is a great pet, but I have never really paid much attention to what he eats, as long as he eats well. I have been feeding him Blackwood formula 2000, and he seems to do well with it. I live in Statesville, NC, and yesterday while driving, I saw a sign about a dog event about 1 mile from my house, so I went in to see what it was. As it turned out, it was a huge international event for working dogs. Some of you may have even been there. There were hundreds of people and dogs. Many kennels and breeders were there, and I was surprised to see this in my small country town.
To get to the point here, I talked to some of the people, and it seems that BARF might be the way to go, but after reading some on the subject, it seems soooo complicated. Can an average guy with little knowledge do this successfully? I don't even think I can buy some of the things I see listed for this kind of feeding. Is there a way to make it all a little more understandable for someone who is not a breeder? I'd like to do it for my dog, but it does seem very involved...Thanks for any help..John

Hi John,
My GSD has been fed raw since March 2003. I can sympathize with you about how complicated some people make the raw diet (I don't feed BARF and I don't care for the word itself).
Here are the two best sources of info I can suggest:
1. http://www.rawmeatybones.com
2. a yahoo group called rawfeeding
My dog is thriving on this diet: sparkling teeth, clean ears, no doggy breath or odor, increased energy, shiny coat, smaller poops (a definite bonus). I'll never go back to commercial..
Good luck in your search,
Magda

Hi, I was there too (wo-manning a table for our SAR team)

Just to clarify that was an event for *show* dogs, albeit Euro lines but not working lines. It was the North American Seiger show. I *did* see a few working line dogs there but for the most part, not....

I feed BARF too it gets real easy -- the best thing is to get a dedicated freezer so you can buy in bulk...then you can take advantage of great deals and free stuff, like deer parts.

Be careful with deer though and make sure you are not in a CWD area and look for parasites.

Statesville is not in a CWD area and it is deer season. Use the resources you were provided and I would recommend getting a book -- Ed sells some on this site -- I have the Billinghurst book but there are others. It is easy.

Thanks for those websites. Certainly answered a lot of questions for me. I want to do the raw diet, because the food I'm feeding him seems so unappetizing. He is totally food driven and loves to work for his kibble. But he's starting to look a little bored and I like all that I hear about the RAW diet. Just one question: If I am on a trip and can't carry around the RAW diet, is it okay to revert to the old dog food again? I imagine it would be for about a week or so? Although I see that Megan was only going parttime on RAW.